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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

hankering en · NOUN

Meanings

  1. (followed by for or after, often) A strong, restless desire, longing, or mental inclination.
    • In other words, some species of human ancestor […] not only had a hankering for meat, which scientists had not expected, but used tools to get it. 2010 August 12, Michael D. Lemonick, “Study: Lucy's Relatives Used Tools to Butcher Meat”, in Time, archived from the original on 13 Sep 2012:
    • "Some people are fond of a stay-at-home life, but I always had a hankering after adventures." 1904, W. W. Jacobs, chapter 2, in Dialstone Lane:
    • I found that he had dipped a little in chimerical studies and had a hankering after astrology and alchymy. 1840, Washington Irving, The Knight of Malta:
    • Mr. Hall thinks he has no personal hatred of Moore; he says he even likes to talk to him, and run after him, but he has a hankering that he should be made an example of. 1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Levitical”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, page 17:
    • But there was one yet - the biggest, the most blank, so to speak - that I had a hankering after. 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 197:
    • “It looks wrong to me. But I have a hankering to work the thing out on my own. […]” 1919, Christopher Morley, “Aubrey Takes Lodgings”, in The Haunted Bookshop, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, page 138:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
hankerings Number=Plur lexicographic

Synonyms

craving

Translations (21)

fi halu (strong desire) · pl tęsknota (strong desire) · ru стра́стное жела́ние (strong desire) · ru тя́га (strong desire) · pt afã (strong desire) · pl pożądanie (strong desire) · nl hunkering (strong desire) · pdt Janka (strong desire) · fi kaipaus (strong desire) · no lyst (strong desire) · it desiderio (strong desire) · cs dychtění (strong desire) · cs velká touha (strong desire) · no lengsel (strong desire) · it esigenza (strong desire) · mi tōminatanga (strong desire) · fi hinku (strong desire) · fi havittelu (strong desire) · pl pragnienie (strong desire) · cs prahnutí (strong desire) · fi kaipuu (strong desire)

hankering en · VERB

Meanings

  1. (form-of, gerund, participle, present) present participle and gerund of hanker
    form of hanker
    • [T]here is a clear sense that Britain is hankering for a change at the top. 2008 May 23, James Graff, “Lost: Labour's Love for Brown”, in Time:
    • One may say that hankering after naughty things is the very essence of the evil into which we have been precipitated by Adam's fall. 1860 January – 1861 April, Anthony Trollope, chapter 4, in Framley Parsonage. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published April 1861, →OCLC:
    • "[…] You don't mean," Mr. Osborne continued, gathering wrath and astonishment as the thought now first came upon him; "you don't mean that he's such a d—— fool as to be still hankering after that swindling old bankrupt's daughter? […]" 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 24, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

Deriveds

hankeringly